


Worlds Collide

by Chrysalin



Series: Yu-Gi-Oh Canon Divergence [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 01:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19121599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrysalin/pseuds/Chrysalin
Summary: He sealed himself in the Sennen Puzzle and was released a few thousand years later when Yuugi needed him, but what about in between? And what did they say to each other the first time they really met?





	Worlds Collide

**Author's Note:**

> I'm cross-posting old works from Fanfiction.net, so you might have seen this there.

At first, he swore he wouldn’t be afraid.

He’d done what he set out to do. He’d stopped the evil plaguing his country, his entire world, despite the cost. It didn’t matter that he’d given up everything as long as no one else had to suffer. And he wasn’t exactly alone, thankfully – his most faithful servant was with him in the deep darkness that was his new home. 

He was dead. He knew that. Still, it didn’t seem that way. Other than the emptiness in his mind where his name should have been, he didn’t think his current existence was too different from living. He remembered his friends and the warmth of the sun, and he could recall with crystal clarity why he’d sealed himself in his golden pendant.

Shadows seethed in the corners, but they seemed wary of approaching the pharaoh, a son of the gods themselves. He walked unopposed through the silent corridors of his prison. Mahaad was with him most of the time, but the magician didn’t know his true name either, so the young man knew his spell had worked as planned. 

* * *

His next vow was to not show his fear.

Bit by bit, his recollections of the world beyond his prison were fading. It seemed like nothing at first. He’d realized he couldn’t remember the precise shade of the Nile at sunset. It escalated from there. Soon the faces in his mind had no names. Then he knew their characters, but not their pasts. Their appearances were all that was left not much later. As time dragged on, even those began to disappear. 

The gaps in his memory terrified him and he clung to his guardian, no longer interested in wandering the black and endless halls. He thought Mahaad was changing too, but if he was, the progression was slow enough that it was hard to tell.

* * *

He promised not to show his protector his pain.

In empty rooms far from the position the magician had chosen, the young man shrieked his anguish and fear. He pounded at the ground trying to feel something, anything, but without a physical form his efforts failed to produce any results. 

Everything from his past was gone. The only reason he knew he even had one was because he remembered that once the universe had been brighter and larger. He couldn’t say why his world was a prison or what brought him there. Darkness became a constant companion, and the shadows that had once feared him were eager. There was no light to combat them. 

The next time he saw his guard, he realized even the magician’s name was gone, another aching void in his empty mind. The face had changed as well. It was no longer the visage of the man he’d once been. There would be no comforting words from this last link to his life. The only voice that ever sounded was his, and there were times when he couldn’t even recognize that. 

He broke down, sobbed and wept and pleaded for things he couldn’t remember, the life he didn’t recall living. He wanted to have friends and a home beyond shadows. The sorcerer could only watch as his charge released every one of his wild emotions. 

He was alone. The guardian withdrew into a stone and appeared only if danger arose, rare though it was in a prison that changed without changing. Shadows did not threaten so obviously. They preferred mocking laughter, reminders that he had nothing left. 

He was somewhat aware of the passage of time, though there were no signs in his narrow world to define it. He could recall the concept of eating, but not the taste of food, and as someone who wasn’t alive he didn’t need it anyway. It was just another regret. Sleep too was unnecessary, though he tried now and then in hopes that he might wake up to something different. 

The shadows ceased to be frightening. He could command them, though to little effect. There was nothing to be done, thus there was no point. Still, he learned whatever he could, hoping this at least would not be forgotten as all else had. 

* * *

He assured himself he could handle it now.

It was an unbelievable shock when things began to change, and in a way it made him afraid once more. Once pitch black, his world became visible for the first time. He could see the stone of the passages and a stylized eye on the doors. Things he’d taken to be normal in his blindness were now revealed to be upside down or sideways, or even disconnected entirely, defying what small sense of logic he’d managed to retain. 

When a new door appeared some time later, he could hardly contain the fearful joy it inspired. It was a promise of something unknown, a chance of venturing beyond the maze that was all he knew. It felt… warm. He hadn’t realized the chill before. He stretched one pale hand for the knob but paused, again uncertain. He was not whatever he might have been when he had entered, and he did not know what he could encounter beyond the portal. 

A cry of pain echoed through the endless rooms, stunning him. He remembered the pain of emotion, but the cry was not like that. Like a physical blow, perhaps? He couldn’t remember having a body.

Worried now, he did reach for the door. 

Once through, he blasted by, barely noticing the shape of another person in a room so near his bizarre world. He understood without knowing how that something was distressing the warm light that had found him however long ago, and he was determined to stop it.

Like an avenging angel, he stood face to face with the mystery assailant. He issued a challenge to a game despite not recalling what it was or why he might do such a thing, and he was unsure if such a game truly existed. Whether it did or not hardly mattered – he won, and the one who had caused the cry met his punishment. He returned to his prison willingly, content in having done something for the person who had rescued him.

* * *

His newest determination was to protect that light.

He came to realize later that he could see the outside world through the eyes of the light, so he watched everything with fascination. The ‘school’, the ‘arcade’, the ‘game shop’, all of it was new and wonderful. 

Still, he had not forgotten darkness, and he used it whenever there was a risk to the safety of the one who had in turn saved him. Those who were identified as threats met with his cruel justice, and he knew it was cruel. Death was one punishment, if he chose or if the danger to the light had been great. Madness was another. He left several opponents ‘hospitalized’, possibly for the rest of their lives. It was of no concern to him as long as nothing jeopardized his savior. Only what troubled the light troubled him. 

Things were changing again, though. Soon he would respond to risks to those that his light favored as well, knowing the light would feel their pain with them. He expended a great deal of effort to be sure he left no trace of his existence except for the emptiness in the light’s memories that he could do nothing about.

* * *

He never expected the light to recognize his presence and seek him out. Had he not been dead already, the sight of the light choosing to enter his dangerous world might have killed him. He stepped out of the shadows to confront him, not willing to let the delicate mortal wander unchecked through the endless maze and its deadly traps. 

“Who are you?” the newcomer asked. 

He had no answer to give and shook his head in response. 

“What are you?”

Another shake of his head. If he had ever known, he could not be sure now. 

“Do you have a name?”

Again. He knew he’d possessed one once, but it was only one of the many things that had vanished from his existence. 

“Can I talk to you?”

He nodded. Anything the light wanted, he would provide. 

“My name is Yuugi,” the light said hesitantly. “I need something I can call you, my other self. We can choose a name for you.”

“I am only the darkness. I have no need for a name.” Those were the first words he spoke to the one who had saved him. 

“Then… Yami. We can call you Yami. It means ‘dark’.”

‘Yami’ inclined his head. “If that is what you want.”

“Why are you here?”

“I do not know.”

“How did you get here?”

Yami gestured around them. “This has been my world for a very long time.”

“This? The Puzzle?”

He blinked. “Puzzle?”

Yuugi touched the inverted pyramid he was wearing just as Yami realized an identical one hung at his throat. “This is the Puzzle. I put it together, and I guess that’s when I found you.”

“Then yes, I suppose this is the Puzzle.”

“Are you… the reason I’ve been blacking out?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You were in danger. I stopped the people who would have hurt you.”

“How?”

“I do not think you want the answer to that question.”

Based on the expression Yuugi now wore, he could guess. “Did you mean to hurt them?”

“Yes.” 

There was no reason to lie. He had lost everything – that was the sole piece of knowledge he had managed to cling to in the countless years of his imprisonment. The light was all he had, and he did not intend to drive him away with dishonesty. The truth, however harsh, was best. 

“Will they… recover?”

“Perhaps. If they learn the lesson I meant to teach.”

“Your lessons are dangerous.”

“Yes.”

“Are you a spirit? You look a lot like me.”

“I am dead. That is all I can recall. I do not know my own face.”

“How are you here? In the Puzzle, I mean?”

He shrugged. “The answer to that is lost, as are the rest of my memories. I had them once, but they are gone.”

“You’ve been alone a long time, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t expect this boy who felt like another half of him to look him in the eye and smile. “If this is the only world you have, I’ll share mine. You don’t have to be alone anymore.”


End file.
